Organic produce has to be the best option

I WAS very surprised to discover that CO2 is so important to the nation’s food production after two fertiliser plants had been closed down because the price of gas got so high the cost of fertiliser became uneconomic.

But nobody has put any figures on how much CO2 that means. Is it so much it should be regulated together with vehicle exhaust emissions, because all the CO2 used to surround the meat, fruit, vegetables and cheese within plastic containers, probably pollutes the surrounding atmosphere when the packages are opened, and when the food packed like that remain unsold, I bet no one is paid to separate out of date food from the deadly plastic.

This whole scenario is diametrically opposite to the progress we have been making with organic food production, which is proven to be better tasting, better for the environment and better for human health because during increasing shelf life the vitamins involved must be reacting with the CO2 (carbonic acid when dissolved in water) and probably forming some very nasty compounds indeed. No wonder it took the high cost gas to expose cheap food pushers’ nasty secret.

Similarly, all our alcohol production releases CO2 into the atmosphere as does bread leavened with yeast which also releases CO2 into the air.

With our high street shops closing down because they aren’t worth their rent, maybe they will soon be taken over by local butchers, bakers, greengrocers and dairies, none of which should need plastic packaging killing all natural life with this acidic, poisonous greenhouse gas.

Organic food may be more expensive, but we don’t need more than half as much.

And nor do we have to eat chemical fertilisers and pesticides which kill the microbes and worms that keep soil healthy, the fungi that recycle dead wood, and the insects that pollinate flowering plants.

Tony Maskell,

Devon